What was he thinking? United States presidential candidate John McCain had earned some serious green-cred as the first high-profile Republican to take a stand against the Bush Administration on climate change.
His 2004 Senate campaign was endorsed by the influential League of Conservation Voters, a year after he co-sponsored the first Senate bill calling for mandatory greenhouse reduction. Earlier this year, he outlined a cap-and-trade system with targets to reduce US emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, and has long been an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s lack of action on climate change. In fact, he described Bush’s track record on global warming as "disgraceful" and "unworthy of our great country."
But he's blown this green goodwill by appointing Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin, as his presidential running-mate.
Did he know she had serious form among green voters as a climate change sceptic? This is a woman who's suing the US government for listing polar bears as an endangered species, arguing in a recent opinion piece in The New York Times that scientific studies show "polar bears are more numerous now than they were 40 years ago" and there’s no evidence to suggest their survival is compromised by global warming.
Asked just last Friday to clarify her shifting views on climate change, she did a quick side-step, claiming "a changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location" but added, "I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."
The big national environment lobby groups have long been unimpressed by Palin. The Centre for Biological Diversity has clashed with her over her idiosyncratic views on polar bears, her opposition to efforts to protect beluga whales in Arctic waters and her push for new laws to allow hunters to shoot wolves from the air. She's also keen to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, criticising George Bush for 'failing" to open up the area for development.
"Most people in the Alaskan environmental community see her as an ally of Big Oil, willing to set aside both science and the public good to benefit the industry," writes Kate Sheppard, Washington-based political analyst for US environmental news site Grist.
The Sierra Club, a blue-ribbon institution billed as America's "oldest, largest and most effective" environmental organisation, has lambasted the Palin appointment. "Senator McCain has lost any chance of having a balanced or moderate ticket with this choice and has instead opted for the same, business-as-usual reliance on the outdated oil companies that has been the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney administration," says the club's president Carl Pope. This is an organisation founded in 1892 by legendary pioneering conservationist, John Muir. It has the ear of government, the staunch support big business philanthropists like Microsoft and Google, and brazenly lists "election 2008 good guys and bad guys" on its website. No prizes for guessing where McCain and Palin have been slotted.
"Unfortunately, with her support for drilling in the Arctic Refuge and off our coasts, Governor Palin will simply continue the failed policies if the Bush-Cheney Administration and their Big Oil friends – polices that could make us even more dependent on foreign oil," says League of Conservation Voters president, Gene Karpinski.
And the hockey-mom jokes have already started, with American political satirist Bill Maher and talk-show host Jay Leno having a field day. "Are you kidding me, the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Yeah, that's who you want in the White House during a time of crisis. When she got a phone call at 3 in the morning, it was because a moose had gotten in the garbage can," was Maher's take on McCain's running mate. But Leno says they're a good match – "she's pro-life and he's clinging to life."
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